Flashback
Today is Saturday, Nov. 18, the 322nd day of 2006. There are 43 days left in the year.
Today’s highlight in history: On Nov. 18, 1928, Walt Disney’s first sound-synchronized animated cartoon, “Steamboat Willie” starring Mickey Mouse, premiered in New York.
On this date:
In 1820, U.S. Navy Capt. Nathaniel B. Palmer and his crew discovered the frozen continent of Antarctica.
In 1883, the United States and Canada adopted a system of Standard Time zones.
In 1886, the 21st president of the United States, Chester A. Arthur, died in New York at age 56.
In 1903, the United States and Panama signed a treaty granting the U.S. rights to build the Panama Canal.
In 1936, Germany and Italy recognized the Spanish government of Francisco Franco.
In 1966, U.S. Roman Catholic bishops did away with the rule against eating meat on Fridays.
In 1978, California Congressman Leo J. Ryan and four other people were killed in Jonestown, Guyana, by members of the Peoples Temple; the killings were followed by a night of mass murder and suicide by more than 900 cult members.
In 1987, the congressional Iran-Contra committees issued their final report, saying President Reagan bore “ultimate responsibility” for wrongdoing by his aides.
In 1991, Shiite Muslim kidnappers in Lebanon freed Anglican Church envoy Terry Waite and Thomas Sutherland, the American dean of agriculture at the American University of Beirut.
In 1999, 12 people were killed when a bonfire under construction at Texas A&M University collapsed.
Ten years ago: One-time CIA station chief Harold J. Nicholson was charged with selling top secrets to the Russians for more than $120,000. (Nicholson later pleaded guilty to espionage and was sentenced to 23 1/2 years in prison; he was spared a life sentence for cooperating with investigators.)
Five years ago: Phillips Petroleum Co. and Conoco Inc. announced they were merging in a deal to create the third largest U.S. oil and gas company.
One year ago: The Republican-controlled House spurned a call for an immediate pullout of troops from Iraq in a 403-3 vote hastily arranged by the GOP that Democrats denounced as politically motivated. Suicide bombers killed more than 50 worshippers at a pair of Shiite mosques in Iraq. Eight months after Robert Blake was acquitted at a criminal trial of murdering his wife, a civil jury decided the actor was behind the slaying, and ordered him to pay Bonny Lee Bakley’s children $30 million. Tropical Storm Gamma formed off the coast of Central America.